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to repent in like manner with the angel at Ephesus : xat, also , cor- responds, ver. 15. The reading opo/us, for which others have written o luau from ver. 6, is defended by almost all1 the authorities. Yet ouv, therefore , remains with great emphasis. Comp. ver. 5, ch. iii. 3, 19.
16. "Ep^o/acci coi xa/ ^oXefjj/jfSM fitr c&uruv) Many, from parallel pas- sages, have inserted rayf 2 after cot. But the -Italian Version, which is nearest to the hand of J ohn, did not contain the word quickly. To the writers wdio followed that reading, Ansbert is added with con siderable regularity, and Bede and Ambrose , also, in Ps. cxviii. Serm. 19 ; nor has Apringius. the word quickly in his paraphrase on this passage. It will be worth while to have turned over the Latin MSS. of the Apocalypse in this place. Sometimes the fuller reading is the genuine one, but generally the shorter. I will say under what circumstances each holds good. The fuller reading is some- times to be preferred. For I. in the case of words having a similar ending, or in the recurrence of words or syllables, the copyists have easily passed over the intermediate text, which is to be restored from the more ancient authorities. II. Conjunctions, which are less fre- quent in other languages than in Greek, are often omitted in the Versions, which it is useless to follow too closely in this particular. III. The Gfeeks frequently removed something from the public reading, to which many copies were accommodated : and in such cases the fuller reading ought to be retained, if supported by the other authorities of greatest antiquity, and especially the Latin Ver- sion. Examples are of constant occurrence. If we except these three causes, brevity is an all but invariable characteristic of a genuine reading. For since the Greek copies, and the translators and fathers who have followed them, are to be divided into two classes, namely, into those of Asia and of Africa, as I have copiously explained in my Apparatus, you will seldom find that manuscripts of both classes endeavoured to fill up short passages by certain explana- tions of their own, though you will find in some places that many of the one class, and in some that many of the other, have done so.
1 This reading therefore (oyoiug) is preferred in the margin of Ed. 2 and Vers. Germ., otherwise than is the case in the greater Edition. — E. B.
ABC Vulg. Memph. Syr. read bpolug : Rec. Text, o g-iau, without good authority. — E.
2 The only good authority for omitting rocygv is the “ Italian,” i.e. the Ante- llieronymic Version, supposed to be of African origin. Vulg. and the weight of best MSS. support tccx,v. — E.